da Vinci® Surgery

Pelvic Organ Prolapse Surgery

Learn about pelvic organ prolapse repair and understand your options

You deserve special care

The muscles and connective tissues supporting your pelvic organs (uterus, bladder, and rectum) can weaken, causing the organs to slip down (prolapse) from their usual positions. When pelvic organ prolapse occurs symptoms may include pressure or discomfort in your pelvic area, a bulge in your vagina, tissue moving out of your vagina, and urinary incontinence.1 Pelvic organ prolapse is surprisingly common. Between 3 and 6 percent of women notice symptoms, and vaginal examinations show that up to 50 percent of women have some degree of pelvic organ prolapse.2

To diagnose pelvic organ prolapse, your doctor may ask you for your medical history and may do a vaginal and rectal exam, either while you are laying down, standing, or both. You may be asked to cough during the exam to see if you leak urine and you may be checked to see how completely your bladder empties.3

Understanding your options

If you’ve been diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse, your doctor may recommend a wait-and-see approach, lifestyle changes, exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, or a removable vaginal device that supports pelvic organs called a pessary.1 If none of these options provide adequate symptom relief, your doctor may recommend surgery. There are two types of surgery for pelvic organ prolapse: obliterative surgery and reconstructive surgery.1 Obliterative surgery narrows or closes off the vagina to provide support for prolapsed organs.

Reconstructive pelvic organ prolapse repair surgery aims to hold the organs in their correct locations. During surgery, the surgeon moves the organs back to their original positions and may implant a surgical mesh support to keep the organs from moving.

Surgeons can perform pelvic organ prolapse repair surgery using traditional open surgery, which requires a long incision (cut), or through minimally invasive surgery. In traditional open surgery, the surgeon looks directly at the surgical area through the incision and performs the repair using hand-held tools.

There are three types of minimally invasive approaches: vaginal, laparoscopic, or robotic-assisted surgery, possibly with da Vinci® technology. A vaginal surgery is when the entire procedure is done through the vagina and there are no incisions (cuts) on your abdomen. Doctors perform minimally invasive laparoscopic or robotic-assisted surgeries through a few small incisions in the abdomen. To perform a laparoscopic procedure, surgeons use special long-handled tools while viewing magnified images from the laparoscope (camera) on a video screen.

How da Vinci works

Surgeons can perform a type of pelvic organ prolapse repair called a sacrocolpopexy using da Vinci technology. With da Vinci, your surgeon sits at a console next to you and operates using tiny, fully wristed instruments.

A camera provides a high-definition, 3D magnified view inside your body. Every hand movement your surgeon makes is translated by the da Vinci system in real time to bend and rotate the instruments with precision.

It’s important to remember that Intuitive does not provide medical advice. After discussing all options with your doctor, only you and your doctor can determine whether surgery with da Vinci is appropriate for your situation. You should always ask your surgeon about his or her training, experience, and patient outcomes.

Why surgery with da Vinci?

A review of published studies suggests that potential benefits of a pelvic organ prolapse repair (sacrocolpopexy) with da Vinci technology include:

Patients may experience fewer complications compared to patients who had open surgery4,5 and a comparable complication rate to patients who had laparoscopic surgery.4,5,7,8

Patients may stay in the hospital for a shorter amount of time compared to patients who had open surgery4 and similar, though sometimes shorter, amount of time compared to patients who had laparoscopic surgery.4,5,8,9

With da Vinci, you may have a few small incisions compared to an open procedure and, after surgery, a few small scars.

All surgery involves risk. You can read more about associated risks of sacrocolpopexy repair here

Questions you can ask your doctor

What options are available to address my pelvic organ prolapse?

What happens if I don’t get surgery?

What are the differences between open, vaginal, laparoscopic, and robotic-assisted surgery?

Can you tell me about your training, experience, and patient outcomes with da Vinci?

Important Safety Information

Patients should talk to their doctors to decide if da Vinci® surgery is right for them. Patients and doctors should review all available information on nonsurgical and surgical options and associated risks in order to make an informed decision.

Serious complications may occur in any surgery, including da Vinci surgery, up to and including death. Serious risks include, but are not limited to, injury to tissues and organs and conversion to other surgical techniques, which could result in a longer operative time and/or increased complications. For Important Safety Information, including surgical risks, indications, and considerations and contraindications for use, please also refer to www.intuitive.com/safety.

Individuals' outcomes may depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to patient characteristics, disease characteristics, and/or surgeon experience.

Product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intuitive Surgical, or of their respective holders.

This website does not provide medical advice. If you think you have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.

The materials on this website are for general educational information only. Information you read on this website cannot replace the relationship that you have with your healthcare professional. Intuitive Surgical does not practice medicine or provide medical services or advice and the information on this website should not be considered medical advice. You should always talk to your healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment. Health information changes quickly. Therefore, it is always best to consult with your healthcare provider.

If you have questions about the da Vinci® Surgical System or about surgical procedures conducted with the da Vinci Surgical System, consult a surgeon that has experience with the da Vinci Surgical System. A list of surgeons that have experience with the da Vinci Surgical System can be found in the Surgeon Locator.